CAPSI leaders appreciated the need for a science
materials support center early in the history of their
project due largely to the experiences of colleagues in
Mesa, Arizona, and the Highline District outside of
Seattle. The typical center is a centralized facility
that maintains the kits of science-education modules and
supplies, then lends these kits and supplies to
classrooms across the district on a regular basis
throughout the school year. Without this kind of support,
many teachers find it difficult to teach in a kit-based
program, and the program dies. In Pasadena, an embryonic
center was established in the first pilot school in the
first year, and with the introduction of more modules,
the center grew. At that point, the center was still
directed and staffed only by the pilot-school coordinator
with the aid of an occasional volunteer.
Transforming the center operation so that an entire
school district's elementary schools (500 classrooms)
could be served proved very challenging to CAPSI. The
challenge was made even greater by the short turnaround
time between the teachers' need for one module and the
next. In CAPSI, this problem was solved to some extent by
a policy of having extra modules that could be
refurbished while demand was low. Kits involving animals
are sent out one week after other kits, as well.
Today, Pasadena has a single, central facility under a
full-time director with support staff of two full-time
employees. Volunteers pitch in, especially during the
weeks between the teaching of one module and the next,
when demand for refurbishment is at its greatest.
